“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” Isaiah 43:18
It’s been an intense couple of years on the “spiritual development” front for me. Trial after trial, it’s been very challenging to keep believing God knows best. I’ve had to CHOOSE faith (really for the first time) in the midst of it all. My spirit has been stretched well beyond its limit so many times, I’m thankful my faith is still intact! The truth is, the disappointments have been relentless for a long enough time that they’ve begun to change the way I think. Unfortunate. But fortunately, I’m aware of it. It’s one thing to not know you’ve become jaded - it’s another to know you’ve become jaded & stay that way. Thankfully, if you’re aware of your jadedness, you have the chance to fight off those feelings. Jaded (adj.) tired, bored, or lacking enthusiasm, typically after having too much of something. Think about it for yourself: Have lengthy trials or habitual disappointments left you feeling jaded? If so, would you like to be free from your jadedness? God has been very effective in setting me free from my jadedness, & today you can find that freedom too. Let’s get down to it. 1. Cut the victim mentality NOW. My “victimized” self says this: “I feel jaded by the let-downs I’ve experienced the past few years. I fear the future, & I wrestle with trusting God moving forward because I am too wrapped up in the scars of my past. But it’s not my fault that I should feel this way, so I’ll just sit in my sorrows. I am a victim to these trials & always will be. I’ll forever feel jaded as a believer. ” My “resilient, expectant” self says this: “I intentionally choose optimism everyday, becasue I will not let trials of the past linger any longer than they must. To let victimized feelings linger would inhibit my ministry potential & quality of life moving forward. I ask God to help me to not be jaded, & He chips away at the negativity day by day until my jadedness is far away. I cling to God instead of pushing Him away, because I understand that even though I saw many trials in the past, I can continue to trust Him moving forward.” 2. Stop dwelling on the past - MOVE FORWARD. Somedays I can get SO down thinking back on my recent trials. One thought leads to the next, & before I know it... I fear the future! Now, I know that the more attention I give my struggles of the past, the more I train my brain to expect struggles of a similar nature to continue forever. It sounds doomsday-esque, because it is: You will wreck your present life by thinking that way. There comes a time when you NEED to stop dwelling on your past. Take what you can from the hard times, & run far away from the bad memories. Distance yourself from those trials. Ask God to heal the wounds of your past. You can bring them up again as a testimony, but only when celebrating the way you overcame them through Jesus. That’s it. Complaining will kill your spirit. Moving on will give you a fresh start. For me, it’s looked like this: I try not to bring up the sad/frustrating details of my trials, & I only bring them up if they will be punctuated with hope for the future. Example: “Last year was so hard for this reason, BUT it taught me A, B, & C, and I am so expectant for how God will use what I’ve learned in the future.” I didn’t deny that the past was hard, but I made a point to validate its purpose in my life & way it could be useful in the future. The purpose may still seem unclear, but you’d be surprised how God will redeem your past trials if you’re open to it. God is the Great Author, after all. 3. Discover & understand God’s promises. God has promised many wonderful things to those who walk with Him, but He hasn’t promised them a life free from difficulty. Very clearly, the Bible says we should expect to face trials of many kinds. (James 1:2) So how should we expect our lives to turn out as believers? What should we expect & what should be NOT expect? • We should expect trials & discipline at the hand of our Good Father. (Hebrews 12:6) • We should also expect provision of all our needs - or opportunities to meet them ourselves. (Philippians 4:19) • We should expect HOPE for our future days knowing that God will be WITH us regardless of the cards we are dealt. (Hebrews 6:19) • We should expect the amazing - the miraculous - the impossible... endless WOW moments in which God shows up in small ways that are big to us, & big ways that are small to Him. (Psalm 77: 14) • We should NOT expect that God is out to get us - because He’s not. (Psalm 13:6) • We should NOT expect God to make our every wish & dream come true like a genie - especially the selfish or vain desires which would do nothing to advance the Kingdom. (Philippians 2:3-4) • We should NOT expect God to leave us in the dark - He may lead us into some dark places, but he will never leave us or foresake us. (Deuteronomy 31:6) • We should NOT expect God to give up on us when we mess up (again & again); instead we should EXPECT Him to forgive us time & time again when we confess & repent of our sins. (Matthew 18:21-22) I’ve given you a start, now go study the Bible for yourself to find more truth! God’s promises are never broken & His words are never untrue. These are promises you can cling to - especially if you are trying to ditch the disappointments of your past! Move forward by filling your soul with the Truth. You must counteract the lies of the enemy with God’s words, because no other words are strong enough to. 4. Resolve that you WILL hope & trust in God again (especially if your faith has faltered for a while). Once you’ve spent some times reminding yourself of God’s promises, you are ready to light that fire of hope again! You’ve refreshed your weary soul with the truth of God’s Word, & now you can start building up the hope & expectancy you once had, or are maybe finding for the first time. God loves childlike faith, & I recently found myself missing mine. My circumstances had left me feeling caloussed toward God’s plans, & I had missed the unafraid faith I once possessed. I had let my hurt feelings get in the way of how I trusted God. Have you done the same? If you have, please listen to me: It is never right to harden our hearts to God. Tragedies happen left & right in this fallen world, but we should never harden our hearts to God. Instead, we should resolve to hope & trust in Him always, especially after we’ve gone through a trial that’s left our faith faltering. It’s time to get back on the horse. And now, the choice is yours to make. I’ve given you a short list of ways to move forward & not dwell in the past. At this point, the choice is yours! I hope you will choose to seek God & move forward in His leading for your life. Satan wants to sidetrack each of us by spewing a bunch of lies regarding our past trials - but his time is UP! The time is NOW for you & me to rise up out of the ashes of our past pains & believe again! To expect & hope again! To receive God’s promises & be free again! There’s nothing scarier than getting your hopes up again & again (been there many times), but it’s something successful people must do. They reach their success because of what they keep doing; what they’ve been doing all along. • Imagine if Thomas Edison stopped at his 1000th try at the light bulb because the disappointment had left him too jaded to try again. (Google it!) • Imagine if Paul stopped writing letters to the churches because he was in prison. • Imagine if Jesus gave up on His mission before He reached the beating - or the cross - or the tomb. Imagine. God didn’t create people to be hopeless quitters. He created them to bear His image & serve Him here on earth in astounding ways! So we serve Him with our utmost best, & we place all our hope into His hands. To trust Him with our future again & again, even after deavastating blows, because we know that He’s the Author of our stories & the only sovereign force holding our universe together. We read His Word, & we know Who He is. We know we can have hope that won’t be foresaken. And once we’ve realized all of this - we are no longer jaded by our past. Full speed ahead, here we come. The future is bright because the Light is the World is leading the charge. “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness & streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19 Much love, Abby Grimaldi #BornToShine Ministries
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AuthorChristian Singer-Songwriter, Writer, Hockey Wife, & Fitness Fanatic. Nomad with North Dakota roots. Archives
January 2020
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